Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Why can't life be EZ?
Because it is not. Today I learned that a great man that I worked with in the Air Force (Colonel Ed Maher) is in the hospital for surgery for a brain tumor. This is a rather sudden diagnosis. His daughter, who we only knew as a newborn, posted the news to FB, tagging her father so his FB friends would see. He has a Glioma Tumor. I pray for him, for strength, for comfort, and for healing. Ed was wonderful to work with and for. He is smart and wise and very human. He is educated about as far as a person can be today, with at least one PhD, and yet he was never arrogant. He is universally respected. He has a loving wife and family and many friends. Ed, be strong.
Monday, July 3, 2023
Is it EZ to condemn your neighbor?
History is Often Not Pretty.
Evelyn’s words left me speechless. I was flabbergasted by what she said.
“My green thumb and love of natural remedies come to me quite naturally. You should be a healer, too. After all, we are both descended from a witch. My daughter even identifies as a ‘Green Witch’.”
I don’t know if I drooled, but my mouth certainly hung open for some time as my eyes bulged. My cousin, Evelyn, was someone who I thought of as generally trustworthy. I’ve known her since we were children, and that’s been a long, long time. But could such a wild tale be true? And in my direct bloodline, as well? Our steak dinners were ignored on the table at the Sizzler in Flagstaff as my cousin continued to surprise me.
The story Evelyn was telling me was that of ‘Goody’ Martin, more formally known as Susannah North Martin. If my cousin’s words could be trusted, Susannah was one of fourteen women executed by hanging as a witch long ago in Salem, Massachusetts. The twist, to me, was that Susannah is my sixth great-grandmother in my father’s matrilineal line. A tincture of strangeness was added by the fact that Evelyn spoke proudly of her and mentioned that she aspired to learn more of the herbal and healing arts that Susannah probably practiced—all this seeming so foreign to the normally pious, but kind and loving, Christian cousin I’ve known.
“Is this poppycock?” I asked. “Are you pulling my leg?”
I knew Susannah’s name. I had seen it in family group sheets and online at Ancestry.com many times. I knew she was amongst the earliest settlers of the colonies in my bloodline, having been born in Buckinghamshire, England in 1621. A little later than the Mayflower, Susannah’s Puritan family moved to Massachusetts around 1639. My other ancestral lines didn’t migrate to the United States until much later, after the Civil War. Except for Susannah’s line, I am only a second-generation citizen of the U.S.
“No! It is true!” Evelyn remarked. “Look it up. It’s all well documented and most of that is available online. Her story is documented in the Salem Witch Museum.”
Finally finishing our small steaks, we hugged and bid adieu with me promising to spend time researching the life of our ancestor after my drive home the next day.
Evelyn was correct. There is a treasure trove of information about Susannah available online, starting with her very own fully referenced and footnoted Wikipedia page. How could I have not known of this? There, we learn that her mother, Joan North, died when Susannah was a child. Her father remarried a woman named Ursula while still in England. It appears that Ursula may have treated Susannah as the stepchild she was. After moving to the colonies, she married George Martin in 1646. They were the first permanent settlers of the township of Amesbury. With George, she had eight children.
Susannah was first formally charged with witchcraft in 1669. She was found guilty, but the sentence was overturned by a higher court. Her husband sued her accuser for slander but did not prevail. By 1671, Susannah and her family were involved in additional court proceedings over the estate of her stepmother, Ursula. It must have been quite a large estate, as the family sued for a share many times over the years but was never successful in court.
The final accusation came in 1692, after the death of Susannah’s husband, George. The transcript of the trial for the crime of ‘Witchcraft and sorcery’ is quite lurid. One of the prosecutors was none other than the Reverend Cotton Mather, who insisted that a witch must not be allowed to live, as quoted from his ‘gospel of peace and love.’ Didn’t we learn in middle school American History that he was a noble and upstanding Puritan pastor and writer? I’m feeling a bit differently about him with my newfound knowledge.
I will quote here from Wikipedia, as I don’t think I can word it better:
“Susannah Martin was twice forced to submit to physical examination in order to find evidence of a ‘witch's tit or physical protuberance which might give milk to a familiar.’ No such deformity was found on Susannah Martin, but it was noted that ‘in the morning her nipples were found to be full as if the milk would come,’ but by late afternoon, ‘her breasts were slack, as if milk had already been given to someone or something.’ This was an indication that she had been visited by a witch's familiar and was clear evidence of guilt.”
Susannah was a 70+ year-old woman then.
Throughout, Susannah maintained her innocence, laughing at the charges and quoting from the Bible. At this point, she had no husband to help in her defense. Wikipedia notes that she was “impoverished.” It is unclear where her eight children, now grown, were in her defense. She was declared guilty by the magistrate on June 30, 1692. The reader may wish to note that it was on June 30, 2023, that Evelyn related Susannah’s story to me, 331 years to the day after Susannah’s sentencing. She was hanged on July 19, 1692.
Over the years, Susannah’s story has gained a lot of popular attention. The convicted Salem witches were exonerated by the Massachusetts legislature in 1957, only 265 years too late, but Susannah’s name was left off the list enacted by the legislature. On Halloween 2001, she was finally fully exonerated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Today, there is an Interstate Highway (I-495) in Massachusetts named for her and indicated with appropriate signage. A memorial plaque has been placed in Amesbury close to where the Martin homestead had been. A poem, The Witches Daughter, by 19th-century poet John Greenleaf Whittier, was written about her, and includes this stanza:
Let Goody Martin rest in peace, I never knew her harm a fly, And witch or not – God knows – not I? I know who swore her life away; And as God lives, I’d not condemn An Indian dog on word of them.
The song, Susannah Martin, has been recorded by numerous folk artists. One very nice performance by Jan Pouska can be found at: https://youtu.be/vMzJ477PA_s
The story of the Salem Witch Trials and the actions of the citizens of Salem then are horrible and abhorrent. Susannah is only one of 25 women and men who were killed (or died in jail) after ‘trials’ as witches. Some were hanged, as was Susannah. Contrary to myth, there is no documentation of any Salem ‘witches’ being burned at the stake, as had been the fate of William Tyndale in England for his crime of translating the Bible into English. Some were thrown into frigid water, fully dressed in heavy, woolen clothing. If they floated, they were guilty of witchcraft and would be executed. If they sank, they would be innocent, but dead. Some were similarly crushed under slabs of limestone. If they lived, they were guilty.
I end this story with a quote that I find especially poignant after I studied Susannah’s life and death:
“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” Agatha Christie
That ‘grand thing’ was cruelly and wrongfully stolen from my ancestor by superstitious, prejudiced, hateful people.
Evelyn’s words left me speechless. I was flabbergasted by what she said.
“My green thumb and love of natural remedies come to me quite naturally. You should be a healer, too. After all, we are both descended from a witch. My daughter even identifies as a ‘Green Witch’.”
I don’t know if I drooled, but my mouth certainly hung open for some time as my eyes bulged. My cousin, Evelyn, was someone who I thought of as generally trustworthy. I’ve known her since we were children, and that’s been a long, long time. But could such a wild tale be true? And in my direct bloodline, as well? Our steak dinners were ignored on the table at the Sizzler in Flagstaff as my cousin continued to surprise me.
The story Evelyn was telling me was that of ‘Goody’ Martin, more formally known as Susannah North Martin. If my cousin’s words could be trusted, Susannah was one of fourteen women executed by hanging as a witch long ago in Salem, Massachusetts. The twist, to me, was that Susannah is my sixth great-grandmother in my father’s matrilineal line. A tincture of strangeness was added by the fact that Evelyn spoke proudly of her and mentioned that she aspired to learn more of the herbal and healing arts that Susannah probably practiced—all this seeming so foreign to the normally pious, but kind and loving, Christian cousin I’ve known.
“Is this poppycock?” I asked. “Are you pulling my leg?”
I knew Susannah’s name. I had seen it in family group sheets and online at Ancestry.com many times. I knew she was amongst the earliest settlers of the colonies in my bloodline, having been born in Buckinghamshire, England in 1621. A little later than the Mayflower, Susannah’s Puritan family moved to Massachusetts around 1639. My other ancestral lines didn’t migrate to the United States until much later, after the Civil War. Except for Susannah’s line, I am only a second-generation citizen of the U.S.
“No! It is true!” Evelyn remarked. “Look it up. It’s all well documented and most of that is available online. Her story is documented in the Salem Witch Museum.”
Finally finishing our small steaks, we hugged and bid adieu with me promising to spend time researching the life of our ancestor after my drive home the next day.
Evelyn was correct. There is a treasure trove of information about Susannah available online, starting with her very own fully referenced and footnoted Wikipedia page. How could I have not known of this? There, we learn that her mother, Joan North, died when Susannah was a child. Her father remarried a woman named Ursula while still in England. It appears that Ursula may have treated Susannah as the stepchild she was. After moving to the colonies, she married George Martin in 1646. They were the first permanent settlers of the township of Amesbury. With George, she had eight children.
Susannah was first formally charged with witchcraft in 1669. She was found guilty, but the sentence was overturned by a higher court. Her husband sued her accuser for slander but did not prevail. By 1671, Susannah and her family were involved in additional court proceedings over the estate of her stepmother, Ursula. It must have been quite a large estate, as the family sued for a share many times over the years but was never successful in court.
The final accusation came in 1692, after the death of Susannah’s husband, George. The transcript of the trial for the crime of ‘Witchcraft and sorcery’ is quite lurid. One of the prosecutors was none other than the Reverend Cotton Mather, who insisted that a witch must not be allowed to live, as quoted from his ‘gospel of peace and love.’ Didn’t we learn in middle school American History that he was a noble and upstanding Puritan pastor and writer? I’m feeling a bit differently about him with my newfound knowledge.
I will quote here from Wikipedia, as I don’t think I can word it better:
“Susannah Martin was twice forced to submit to physical examination in order to find evidence of a ‘witch's tit or physical protuberance which might give milk to a familiar.’ No such deformity was found on Susannah Martin, but it was noted that ‘in the morning her nipples were found to be full as if the milk would come,’ but by late afternoon, ‘her breasts were slack, as if milk had already been given to someone or something.’ This was an indication that she had been visited by a witch's familiar and was clear evidence of guilt.”
Susannah was a 70+ year-old woman then.
Throughout, Susannah maintained her innocence, laughing at the charges and quoting from the Bible. At this point, she had no husband to help in her defense. Wikipedia notes that she was “impoverished.” It is unclear where her eight children, now grown, were in her defense. She was declared guilty by the magistrate on June 30, 1692. The reader may wish to note that it was on June 30, 2023, that Evelyn related Susannah’s story to me, 331 years to the day after Susannah’s sentencing. She was hanged on July 19, 1692.
Over the years, Susannah’s story has gained a lot of popular attention. The convicted Salem witches were exonerated by the Massachusetts legislature in 1957, only 265 years too late, but Susannah’s name was left off the list enacted by the legislature. On Halloween 2001, she was finally fully exonerated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Today, there is an Interstate Highway (I-495) in Massachusetts named for her and indicated with appropriate signage. A memorial plaque has been placed in Amesbury close to where the Martin homestead had been. A poem, The Witches Daughter, by 19th-century poet John Greenleaf Whittier, was written about her, and includes this stanza:
Let Goody Martin rest in peace, I never knew her harm a fly, And witch or not – God knows – not I? I know who swore her life away; And as God lives, I’d not condemn An Indian dog on word of them.
The song, Susannah Martin, has been recorded by numerous folk artists. One very nice performance by Jan Pouska can be found at: https://youtu.be/vMzJ477PA_s
The story of the Salem Witch Trials and the actions of the citizens of Salem then are horrible and abhorrent. Susannah is only one of 25 women and men who were killed (or died in jail) after ‘trials’ as witches. Some were hanged, as was Susannah. Contrary to myth, there is no documentation of any Salem ‘witches’ being burned at the stake, as had been the fate of William Tyndale in England for his crime of translating the Bible into English. Some were thrown into frigid water, fully dressed in heavy, woolen clothing. If they floated, they were guilty of witchcraft and would be executed. If they sank, they would be innocent, but dead. Some were similarly crushed under slabs of limestone. If they lived, they were guilty.
I end this story with a quote that I find especially poignant after I studied Susannah’s life and death:
“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” Agatha Christie
That ‘grand thing’ was cruelly and wrongfully stolen from my ancestor by superstitious, prejudiced, hateful people.
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